Year 11 Geography Trip to Longyunshan

Year 11 Geography students visited the scenic mountainous area of Longyunshan, north of Beijing, in October. The valleys provide an excellent location for studying the features of rivers. On this trip, students focused their two day field study on the Baihe River, which flows through several steep gorges before reaching the Miyun reservoir.

Students measured a range of river characteristics and in doing so had to take their first experience  walking in a river.  Leo literally took this in his stride and was the first one to walk across. He was, also, unfortunately, the only one to take a dunking, but, despite the icy temperature,   took this as all part of the big ‘adventure’. Celia, too, managed to overcome her trepidation and was soon totally absorbed in the data collection with no thought of where she was. Students also collected socio-economic data from villager interviews on the impacts of tourism in the area.

An important highlight of the trip was the hostel food, which was so fresh, the veggies were still growing when they were served onto our plates. Students returned to Tianjin with not only river data to analyse but were also enriched by the whole socio-cultural experience.